Ryan Peter. Writer.

Ghostwriter. Author. Journalist.

Hashtags Come to Facebook. But Who Invented the Hashtag?

Facebook has announced that hashtags are now coming to its platform, meaning that you can post a status update and include a hashtag that you can click on and see who else is talking about that topic.

Hashtags initially became popular on Twitter and weren’t actually invented by Twitter itself. Chris Messina is the guy who claims to have invented them, proposing the use of them in a blog post.

“I never imagined that hashtags would catch on as they did,” he says at Quora. He now works for Google.

For those of you who aren’t quite up to speed, all this means is that you can post something about the Rugby and follow it up with #Sharks. Click on that hashtag and see who else is talking about the Sharks. On Facebook, you’ll be able to follow conversations not only on Facebook but also on Twitter, Instagram and other services.

As per Facebook:

• Search for a specific hashtag from your search bar. For example, #NBAFinals.
• Click on hashtags that originate on other services, such as Instagram.
• Compose posts directly from the hashtag feed and search results.

As always, you control the audience for your posts, including those with hashtags.

Google+ incorporated a similar use of hashtags recently. I’m not sure this is really going to make me want to use Facebook over Google+, but it’s certainly about time!

The next frontier? Hashtags on the whole web, including blogs such as mine!